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This story originally appeared in the Jackson Free Press. It was added to the Mississippi Free Press website in 2025.
Note that any opinions expressed in legacy Jackson Free Press stories do not reflect a position of the Mississippi Free Press or necessarily of its staff and board members.

Imagine if Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon had married Built To Spill’s Doug Martsch instead of Thurston Moore. Now, imagine if Doug and Kim had kids, and those kids started a band. That band would inarguably sound like Atlanta rockers, The Close. All fictional marriages and rock star spawn aside, The Close boasts its very own brand new full length album Sun, Burn (featuring a guest appearance by Ivan Howard of Merge Records’ The Rosebuds) to be released this fall on Atlanta label Goodnight Records.

Renowned for its catchy hooks, boy/girl vocals, and intelligent pop sound, The Close’s dynamic energy and onstage antics (heartthrob bassist Dustan Nigro has been known to get down to his skivvies!), has earned the band envied slots on shows with indie darlings such as Ted Leo, American Analog Set, Mates of State, The Walkmen, Secret Machines, and Mission of Burma.

Sun, Burn, The Close’s third full length and the follow up to last year’s It’s a Secret To Everybody, takes a close look at the ups and downs of relationships in songs like “If You Run Out”, and “Sun Shine”, and pays homage to a favorite Grant Park hangout in the track titled “Ria’s Bluebird”. The album was recorded at Zero Return, and at the band’s own Slimmertwin Studios.

The four and a half members of The Close (one drummer tours with the band, one plays on recordings and locally) – Brooks Meeks (guitar, vocals), Theresa Fedor (keyboards, vocals), Keefe Justice (drums), Greg Stevens (drums), and Dustan Nigro (bass) – are no strangers to a rigorous tour schedule, as they have spent the last three years on the road in a van with no air conditioning or heat!

The band will play a CD release party in its home base of Atlanta before it hits the pavement for a fall tour. Dates will be announced shortly.

Sun, Burn Tracklisting:

01. They Get Around
02. Sun, Shine
03. Run Out
04. On The List
05. Old New
06. The John & Donna Thing
07. Cookie Crook
08. The Penny Jar
09. Ria’s Bluebird

On The Web:
www.thecloserocks.com

MFP Solutions Lab logo

The Mississippi Free Press produced this story through the MFP Solutions Lab, supported by the Solutions Journalism Network. This series digs into Mississippi’s systemic issues and sheds light on responses to them in other communities. Beyond just reporting on problems, these stories interrogate their causes and inspect potential solutions.

Mississippi native Donna Ladd and partner Todd Stauffer founded the Jackson Free Press in 2002 in the capital city. The heavily awarded local newspaper did many investigations heralded across the state and nation and served as a paper of record due to its diversity, inclusion, in-depth reporting and deep connection to readers and dedication to narrative change in and about Mississippi. In 2022, the nonprofit Mississippi Free Press, founded by Ladd and JFP Associate Publisher Kimberly Griffin in 2020, purchased the journalism assets and archives of the Jackson Free Press. A Google grant through AAN Publishers enabled Newspack's integration of the JFP archives into the Mississippi Free Press website to become part of a more searchable archive of recent Mississippi history and essential journalism.